Amazon has already put up a forum (kindletalk.com) and one of the headers is 'Kindle vs Other E-Book Readers'.

The first posted question here (posted by the administrator no less!) is 'Does anyone own a Sony', and asks 'Why do you think it (the Sony reader) is not successful?'

Isn't this a bit like asking a politician 'When did you stop beating your wife?' I thought the Sony reader was doing well. Has anyone seen any official Sony info that indicates they consider it to be unsuccessful?

I know, that was my own reaction. If I were a lawyer I'd say 'assumes facts not in evidence'. 8-)

Hey, the Kindle looks nice (though I think the Sony is better designed from an ergonomic perspective) and I will likely end up owning a Kindle even though I already have a Sony 505.

It's just a shame that Amazon has to start out playing games like this. If the Kindle is truly competetive, it should stand on its own without needing forum administrators to plant silly questions like this one.

Amazon has already put up a forum (kindletalk.com) and one of the headers is 'Kindle vs Other E-Book Readers'.

The first posted question here (posted by the administrator no less!) is 'Does anyone own a Sony', and asks 'Why do you think it (the Sony reader) is not successful?'

Isn't this a bit like asking a politician 'When did you stop beating your wife?' I thought the Sony reader was doing well. Has anyone seen any official Sony info that indicates they consider it to be unsuccessful?

WEEEEeeeeeellll... I *think* the PRS is *not* successful on Amazon *because* Amazon chose to stop effectively marketing it once they chose to build that disgusting piece of cr*p, the Kindle! Of course, this is just my humble opinion.

And has anyone noticed the .AZW format ebooks *must* be downloaded directly to the Kindle? If you don't *have* a Kindle, you can't *download* them! (Which means that - even at the inflated $9.99 price - no one can download them to a PC, rename the extension to .mobi and read them in Mobipocket. Waitaminit!?! Did I just let slip that .azw files are merely .mobi files with a different extension?!? OOPS!!! ) Sitting out here with an .azw file posted elsewhere but open on my Cybook Gen3, right now. No wonder they only allow the .azw titles to be downloaded through Whispernet!

Where did you see that tidbit? I've missed it, but I've had to do a lot of skimming.

They say in the manual. They say Mobi DRM will not work so it has to be different. If that is not enough someone in the Kindle forum has already purchased a Kindle book and tried to read it with the Windows MobiReader. It detected the book but would not pass the DRM.

Until someone gets a Kindle and some downloaded DRM-ridden .AZW files I don't think we can know for sure, but I assume .AZW is identical to .MOBI. However, MOBI DRM is PID-based and the PID is presumably not easily available on the Kindle (since the Amazon servers already have the PID). Without the PID it won't be possible to make secure MOBI files for the Kindle.

One thing to check will be bytes 61-68 of the file. If this is BOOKMOBI, then this is evidence (although not definitive) that the file is using the standard MobiPocket format.

Kindletalk.com is neither owned by nor affiliated with Amazon.com. We utilize Amazon’s EC2 service to host our forums, which may explain why some users thought we were connected in some way with Amazon.

Kindletalk.com exists simply as an unbiased online community for Kindle users.

Kindletalk.com is neither owned by nor affiliated with Amazon.com. We utilize Amazon’s EC2 service to host our forums, which may explain why some users thought we were connected in some way with Amazon.

Kindletalk.com exists simply as an unbiased online community for Kindle users.